400 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



stolen a watch from a fellow-patient. Upon his arrest, 

 stimulated by the hope of in some degree mitigating 

 his punishment, he confessed to having been carrying 

 on a series of petty thieving for weeks before he was 

 finally detected, having scores of stolen articles in pos- 

 session. The last time we saw the wretched fellow he 

 was being led away in irons to prison. We have since 

 heard that he continues in his downward career, having 

 served out his time in prison, and will undoubtedly 

 end his life in a felon's cell, unless he is shrewd enough 

 to escape his just deserts. Having lost all desire to 

 do right, to be noble, pure, and good, all efforts to re- 

 form and restore him to the path of rectitude were 

 fruitless. It was only the fear of impending death 

 that caused him to pause for a few days in his criminal 

 course. 



Young man, take warning by this sad case; enter 

 not the pathway of vice. Once entered upon, it is not 

 easily left. A youth who once gives himself up to sin, 

 rarely escapes from going headlong to destruction. 



An Indignant Father.— A case came to our knowl- 

 edge through a gentleman who brought his daughter 

 to us for treatment for the effects of self-abuse, of a 

 father who adopted a summary method of curing his 

 son of the evil practice. Having discovered that the 

 lad was a victim of the vile habit, and having done all 

 in his power by punishment, threats, and representa- 

 .tions of its terrible effects, but without inducing him 

 to reform, the father, in a fit of desperation, seized 

 the sinful boy, and with his own hand„performed upon 

 him the operation of castration as he would have done 

 upon a colt. The boy recovered from the operation, 

 and was of course effectually cured of his vile habit. 

 The remedy was efficient, though not justifiable. Even 



